Bobby Deen Talks About His New Show, His Mom's Diabetes

Sept. 04--Bobby Deen, son of Food Network star Paula Deen, came
to Raleigh last week to cook vegetarian gumbo at a state employee
health fair.

Deen, 42, was promoting the Diabetes in a New Light program of
Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company with a facility in Clayton.
His mother takes the company’s diabetes medication. Bobby
Deen, his mother and his brother, Jamie, have worked as
spokespeople for the company since January when Paula Deen revealed
she has Type 2 diabetes -- three years after she was first
diagnosed.

The revelation caused an uproar, given her reputation for
cooking over-the-top, fattening Southern food.

Bobby Deen visited our office to talk about that, and about his
show on the Cooking Channel, "Not My Mama’s Meals," now in
its second season. He also shared his feelings about his
mother’s biggest critic, Travel Channel star and chef Anthony
Bourdain. Responses have been edited.

How do you respond to the criticism about your mother?

I don’t know if I really do respond to it. I’m not
sure any of us do. My mother was diagnosed with diabetes. She
shared it with us. She didn’t hide it from anybody. She just
didn’t publically talk about it. My mother’s feeling
was this: She’s aware that people admire her. When she did
come out and say that she had diabetes, she wanted to do it with
purpose. She wanted to be able to help people.

I don’t really pay close attention. I don’t see the
good in that, really, to tell you the truth.

Anthony Bourdain said lots of bad stuff about my mom.
That’s what he does to everybody.

I think my mother is an easy target because she’s really
sweet. She has a great Southern accent that lots of people think is
fake. It’s easy to pick on her.

What was your reaction when your mom told you she had
diabetes?

I didn’t see it really as that big a deal. Lots of people
have Type 2 diabetes and it’s a very manageable thing.
It’s not as if she came to us and said, ‘OK, family, I
have an inoperable, cancerous brain tumor.’ She said,
‘I have Type 2 diabetes, and I can’t really drink sweet
tea anymore. I have to start exercising.’

She’s managing it very well. She’s begun to
exercise. ... She’s lost about 30 pounds. She really looks
great.

Did it make you think about changing your lifestyle?

Eleven years ago, I really dove into fitness and exercise. I run
every day. I lift weights every day. I practice Brazilian jui
jitsu. ... I began leading a lifestyle years ago that would
hopefully keep me from contracting (diabetes). What is the aim of
your show?

My idea with the show is to let people know: Healthy food
doesn’t have to be bad. My mom has long said: If it tastes
good, spit it out. It’s not good for you. And that
doesn’t have to be true.

I take a lot of my mom’s recipes -- that’s basically
the premise of the show -- taking family, traditional recipes and
looking at them and saying, ‘OK. What are the culprits? How
can we make this better for us?’ What I’m doing is not
necessarily health food, it’s healthier food. If it calls for
three cups of sugar, let’s try one ...

The phrase that came to me when we started the show was,
‘We’re kind of taking Sunday food and making it into
Monday food.’ Food that you can just feel a little bit better
about feeding your family on a daily basis.

I do want to say this because people have asked: My
mother’s contracting Type 2 diabetes and my television show
are completely unrelated. It is complete circumstance. This is my
lifestyle and this is my show.

My mother just happens to be extremely famous. That makes people
say, ‘Hmmm, you are doing a healthy show now? What’s
the connection there?’ There really isn’t one. ...
It’s happenstance."